


Interrogation

by sapphicmedusa



Category: La casa de papel | Money Heist (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, F/M, Gap Filler, I'm bad at this, Sort of? - Freeform, i guess?, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:42:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23722549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphicmedusa/pseuds/sapphicmedusa
Summary: Set in 4x02. When Alicia's first attempts at trying to get information out of Raquel fail, something she says leads them to reminisce on their old days.
Relationships: Raquel Murillo/Alicia Sierra, Raquel Murillo/Professor | Sergio Marquina
Comments: 10
Kudos: 94





	Interrogation

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is my first fic so I just want to give you all a heads up because the characters may be ooc/there might be some mistakes related to the plot. Feedback/comments are appreciated. Enjoy!

“Ask yourself, Raquel. Do you deserve to spend thirty years of your life in prison for that little fuck in a mask?”

For a split second, Alicia had Raquel. 

There was no escaping it. There was no escape plan, because Sergio thought she was dead. Her heart ached at the thought. It was as painful as imagining herself in prison for the next 30 years of her life. Possibly the rest of her life.

Thirty. Just ten years less than the amount of time she had been alive. Half her life spent behind bars. Away from Paula. Away from her mother. Away from Sergio.

That last part was not negotiable anymore. Even if she would consider giving him up to get a reduced sentence, she’d never see him. She would only see him if he was caught and that was a thought she couldn’t bear. The realization sat on her heart. She would never see him again. Ever. She felt tears form in her eyes but held them back.

So, she was fucked either way. No matter what she chose. She mentally collected herself to do some damage control. 

She evaluated her options. Either she would give Sergio up and he would spend the rest of his life in prison, along with the rest of the gang, and she was fucked. Sergio being locked up also meant that there would be no one to protect Paula and her mother while she was in prison. Paula would end up with Alberto and her mother would be sent to a home. She would never see either of them again. Keeping her mouth shut to ensure his safety was the smartest thing she could do.

She felt relief running through her body at the realization. She wasn’t sure that she would have been able to give him up, even if it had meant the best for her and her family.

When she felt relaxed, she looked at Alicia. This was not how she expected their reunion to look like, if she was expecting one at all.

Was she secretly hoping she would get special treatment? That Alicia would have mercy on her? She scoffed at herself, turning Alicia’s attention to her.

“I don’t like this Raquel. Not one bit.”

Raquel sucked in her cheeks to prevent herself from grinning sarcastically and raised her eyebrows. She didn’t respond, hoping that it would urge her to continue.

“Do you really think that your dear professor is the good guy here? Joder, Raquel, are we really going to go through this again?”

She crossed her arms, then leaned on the table, looking down. Raquel could feel the anger burning through her eyes and she hoped Alicia could feel her gaze too.

“I know you hate me. I don’t blame you. But what the fuck did you expect me to do?” She brought her face closer to Raquel’s. There was fire in her eyes but Raquel could see that she was hurt by the words that came out of her very own mouth. “Support you in your decision to put your daughter through for a guy you only knew for a week before running off with him? Ignore the fact that you’re ridiculously incapable of seeing men for what they are?”

Her tone became condescending. 

“Congratulate you on becoming a fugitive and throwing your life away?”

Raquel kept her silence.

“You laid your life in his hands. You’ve only known him two years Raquel. Maybe not even that long. How long had you known Alberto before he hit you?”

Raquel tried hard not to wince. She was not upset that Alicia had brought up Alberto. She was upset because she had seen the risks herself. She had thought the exact same thing, had the exact same concern, but looked past it. She knew Sergio wouldn’t hurt her. But then again, Alicia had a point. Her instinct was not to be trusted.

Feeling the need to defend her partner or at least deflect from the topic, Raquel broke her silence.

“Are you here to lecture me on my love life or to interrogate me?” She questioned, rather stupidly. It was a desperate attempt to escape Alicia’s criticism but it was the best response she could come up with.

Alicia made a low chuckling sound, tilting her head. She pulled the chair opposite to Raquel and sat on it in a sudden movement.

“How fucking blind can you be, Raquel?” Alicia scoffed. Her tone made Raquel shiver.

This is what she hated about Alicia. What she had always hated about her. How she could say things that Raquel would not have given two fucks about if they came from somebody else’s mouth, and make them sound like the worst insults ever thrown at anyone. For a split second, Raquel felt like a child. And then she realized, this woman did not know the past two years of her life, not even vaguely. She didn’t know how much courage it had taken to run away from her ex husband, from Spain, from the police whom she had worked for for 20 fucking years before they fucked her life up.

She suddenly realized, despite what Alicia wanted her to think, she didn’t blame Sergio for any of it. Where would she be now, if she hadn’t run away with him? The judge would have given Paula to Alberto eventually, there was no doubt in that. If she kept her job, and that’s a big “if”, she would be working with greasy men who popped viagra like candy and made jokes about her period. Ángel would have kept chasing her and it would have only gotten worse after his wife left him. So no, she didn’t blame Sergio for any of it. She didn’t even blame herself.

Now, at least her family was safe. No matter what happened to her, she knew Sergio would make sure that Paula and her mother were safe.

So what if she went to prison for 30 years? Her previous life wasn’t that much different anyway. She had put countless people in prison, she knew how it was in there. And still, she would rather spend 30 years behind the bars than risk Paula ending up with Alberto. 

No fucking way.

With her growing confidence, she lifted her back from her very uncomfortable chair and leaned towards the table. She squinted her eyes, slightly. She rolled her tongue inside her mouth.

“You expect me to believe that you’re doing this because you care about me?” Raquel asked, clearly not expecting an answer.

She could see the anger growing in Alicia’s eyes.

“If you don’t like interrogating me,” Raquel said, in a dramatically sarcastic tone, “tell Tamayo about the last year of academy. Tell him that you cannot work this case because you were personally involved with the robber sitting behind the curtain.”

Alicia scoffed, diverting her gaze from Raquel.

“He won’t be able to get you off the case fast enough.” Raquel said, following her words with a chuckle. She leaned back on her chair, visibly relaxed. “Better yet, they’ll probably accuse you of cooperating with me like they accused me of cooperating with the professor.” She continued, putting an emphasis on “the professor”, as if she was talking of an enigma.

Raquel didn’t know what she was trying to do, but for a second, she wanted Alicia to feel what she felt. Disgust. Shame. Injustice.

Alicia looked unimpressed, but Raquel knew her. She knew it was working.

“What are you getting at, Raquel?” Alicia asked, shaking her head.

“Alicia, I know you’re trying to do your job...” Raquel responded lowering her voice, slowly shaking her head up and down. She put her handcuffed wrists on the table and slightly leaned in to look her in the eye.

“...but you’ve spent your entire adult life around these people. You know just as well as I do that there isn’t a single line they won’t cross just to get a pat on the back from their superiors. You think we are the bad guys? Look again, Alicia. You tortured a 20 year old kid without batting an eye. You don’t get to look at me like I’m a fool who became a criminal for a guy I thought I was in love with. So say whatever you want, but you’re not getting shit out of me by comparing Sergio to Alberto.” It was the first time she used his name while talking to Alicia. She tried to shrug off how wrong it felt to do so. “I would choose a life as a criminal to spending another second in this tent any day.” She was painfully aware of the irony, but thankfully Alicia didn’t bring it up.

“You chose Sergio. There’s a difference.” Alicia said coldly, in a as-a-matter-of-fact way, like she had given this some thought before.

Hearing his name leave her lips made Raquel uncomfortable. This was more personal. She wasn’t accusing her of running away with a criminal, the professor. She was accusing her of running away with the love of her life. A burning sensation ran through her body, whether it was because of embarrassment or anger she wasn’t sure.

“Maybe another inspector would believe you. But I know you, Raquel… You were always just a little too impulsive when it came to love.”

Alicia said, with a genuine smile on her face. She still looked hurt and intimidating, but the smile was real. She was fondly reminiscing the old days.

Raquel couldn’t help letting out a light chuckle at the realization that they shared something not a single soul outside of them knew about.

Her own words took Alicia back twenty years.

Even back then, despite the differences in their worldview, there was an uncanny resemblance between the two of them. The way they carried themselves. The way they didn’t take shit from anyone. 

That’s why they had become close. They couldn’t bear the male dominance at the academy anymore, and they found comfort in each other. It was their way of coping with it. While other girls resorted to trying to become “one of the guys”, Raquel and Alicia always kept their distance. They looked cold and intimidating, so they weren’t messed with.

One night they were at Alicia’s apartment, and Raquel just couldn’t restrain herself anymore. She was filled with the sudden desire to be with her. As sudden and unexpected as it was, it had felt as if she had been trying to fight it all her life.

They had never named it. Alicia thought it was because there was no need to. They spent all their time together, they fucked, they slept together, most nights Raquel would stay over at Alicia’s apartment - so much so that it was like she had moved in. But they had never named it. So when Alberto from the academy took a sudden interest in Raquel, Raquel didn’t turn him down immediately. 

Alberto was a total ass. You had to be blind not to see it. He looked nicer than the other guys at the academy, but that wasn’t a high standard to live up to. The bar was low. 

Raquel, however… She loved Alicia, but she was so fed up with their anti-sociality. Alicia didn’t like being around people, she rarely liked anyone, but Raquel did. It was in her nature. She thought there wouldn’t be any harm in befriending Alberto. 

Alicia, of course, wasn’t happy about it. It wasn’t jealousy, at first. She had no reason to be threatened. But Alberto was a true motherfucker and she couldn’t stand seeing Raquel around him.

The more she voiced her displeasure, the further Raquel was pushed away. And eventually, they had a fight. A big one. When Alicia finally confronted Raquel about how distant she had been, it was already too late.

The only thing Raquel remembered from their fight were Alicia's last words:

“You’re so desperate for attention that you’ll throw yourself at the first motherfucker that comes your way!” Alicia had yelled at her, giving Raquel her signature psychotic grin.

And with that Raquel had stormed out. She was so hurt that she hadn't even tried to defend herself. It wasn’t even a proper breakup. She hadn’t even come back to get her things from Alicia’s apartment. Alicia never bothered to return them. 

Neither of them were sad or grieving afterwards. Perhaps Alicia was, a little, not that she would ever admit it. Raquel on the other hand, was furious. At a desperate attempt to make Alicia jealous, she had thrown herself at Alberto, just like Alicia had said she was doing.

At first it was meaningless. It was just sex. And every minute of it had made Raquel miss Alicia more. 

But eventually, she developed real feelings for Alberto. She wasn’t going to deny it. It was embarrassing, but she had actually fallen for the asshole. 

A few years later, when Alicia realized it was getting serious, she confronted Raquel again. She didn’t trust him. But Raquel just took it as her ex being jealous. 

Maybe that was why she had denied it for so long. She didn’t want to believe that Alicia could have been right. She didn’t want to believe that she married a violent man even though she had been warned, countless times.

For a few moments, they just looked at one another, as if they were remembering the past together. Then Raquel diverted her gaze and almost simultaneously, the two became painfully aware of the unresolved issues between them. 

The weight of the situation they were in sat on Alicia’s chest. She felt herself tear up but stopped it before Raquel could see. With the year she had had, having to interrogate Raquel was the cherry on top. 

She felt something inside her break when she realized what she had to do. She had meant it when she said she didn’t enjoy interrogating Raquel. Up until this moment, she had tried her best to see Raquel as just another one of the robbers. But every passing second it became more and more obvious that it would be impossible for her to do so.

Almost instinctively, she reached over the table to hold Raquel’s hands. It had felt like the most natural thing to do, but feeling the cold metal of the handcuffs on her fingertips almost broke her. Who would have thought they would end up here? Raquel, arrested for being part of the biggest goddamn robbery in history, refusing to give up her partner, and Alicia, pregnant with a dead husband, interrogating her. 

The contact made Raquel soften. She thought that maybe Alicia was telling her the truth. Maybe she really didn’t like seeing her like this. But she knew she wouldn’t let her emotions get in the way. Alicia had always been professional, far too professional. She wouldn’t show emotion even if she had to. 

She lightly squeezed Alicia’s fingers in her palms.

Alicia couldn’t bring herself to let go of Raquel’s hand. She didn’t want to leave her like this. Not when just a few hours ago she had thought she was going to die, not when she was burdened with the knowledge that her lover thought she was dead, and not when she had just been told she would be spending the rest of her days in prison.

The sympathy she had for Raquel's situation was so strong and the emotions were so raw that it almost made Alicia forget that she was the one who ordered her supposed “execution”.

Raquel gave her a small but strong smile. It was supposed to be comforting, for both of them, but it only broke Alicia’s heart more. 

Raquel could tell that Alicia couldn’t let go, so she slowly pulled her hand away in an attempt to make this less awkward for both of them.

Alicia looked down at the table before pushing her chair back and getting up slowly. She didn’t look Raquel in the eye again before leaving the room. 

When she was on the other side of the curtain, she could feel Tamayo’s eyes on her. He was clearly surprised, but he would have been more surprised only if he knew what was actually going on. Having stepped out of their bubble, Alicia turned back to reality. 

“Get Alberto Vicuña on the ambulance. Now.”


End file.
